As Gillian Montgomery walked through the grocery aisle on Wednesday afternoon she was dumbfounded by the needless amounts of single-use plastic wrapping most of the food items.
B次元官网网址淟ook in my bin, I donB次元官网网址檛 have anything thatB次元官网网址檚 plastic but I look around the store and [nearly] everything is wrapped in plastic,B次元官网网址� she says. B次元官网网址淲e need to solve this problem, there is no regulation over this plastics industry.
B次元官网网址淲e live in a complacent culture thatB次元官网网址檚 filled with convenience and the plastics industry has taken advantage of that. They know that people are lazy.B次元官网网址�
Montgomery volunteers with Surfrider Vancouver Island in pressuring for regulations in the plastics industry and also organizes beach clean-ups.
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On Sunday, the local Surfrider chapter leads the second annual on at least nine beaches in Greater Victoria: Willows Beach, Cadboro Bay, Cordova Bay, Gonzales Beach, Clover Point, Ogden Point, Gorge Waterway, Lime Bay (next to Spinnakers), Esquimalt Lagoon and other beaches.
B次元官网网址淲e say B次元官网网址榦therB次元官网网址� because everyone is invited to clean up any beach,B次元官网网址� Montgomery said.
(Inset photo: Gillian Montgomery and Annie Gibson at Victoria council to advocate for the bag ban.)
Surfrider will have team leaders at each of the beaches listed. The clean-up runs from 10 to 11:30 a.m. followed by a massive noon rendezvous at Clover Point to amalgamate all of the waste collected to sort and analyze it all.
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Last month Montgomery and 13 others - 12 of them from Victoria - visited remote Nigei Island off the northern end of Vancouver Island. The group collected enough garbage in one weekend to fill nearly two-dozen super sacks and transported them to Port Hardy.
B次元官网网址淚t was a really eye-opening experience,B次元官网网址� Montgomery said. B次元官网网址淚t was by far he worst amount of debris IB次元官网网址檝e seen on a remote clean up. People in the group had done multiple cleanups for years and everyone agreed it was the worst beach that all of us had seen.B次元官网网址�
The anti-plastic movement is a growing one and Montgomery has seen other groups take on remote beach clean-ups.
B次元官网网址淭hereB次元官网网址檚 way too much out there and we need all the help we can get, as many people and organizations that can bring to light this issue is extremely important.B次元官网网址�
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On Tuesday, Oct. 9, the Story of Stuff released its results from a major global audit of identifiable plastic trash. It found Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestl茅 to be the most identified plastic polluters in global cleanups.
In 10 years of beach clean-ups, Montgomery says she identifies plastic from Tim Hortons and Starbucks the most.
So how do you buy food with a goal to minimize the amount of plastic purchased?
Firstly, it takes planning.
B次元官网网址淵ou have to be meticulous,B次元官网网址� Montgomery said. B次元官网网址淧repare yourself by bringing bags [and reusable] containers.B次元官网网址�
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